Monday 26 January 2015
Ocean Science's blog
Glenn Cooper
Tue 3 Feb 2015 14:31
Monday 26 January 2015 (blog delayed due to satphone having a hissy
fit)*
Going west, we are now on Nuuk (Greenland) time, GMT-3 hours
To start with, a return to Culture Corner. Here is verse 2 of
probably the best known, and maybe the best poem about sailing the sea:
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running
tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls
crying.
John Masefield “Sea-fever” v.2
The wind is mostly dead astern of us, so we are running goosewinged at
night and yesterday in the daytime ran with the blue and white asymmetric
spinnaker. (There are pictures of the various sails on the blog postings in
January 2013)
Night running is getting smoother; only a few days ago sleep involved
bracing oneself against woodwork and struggling to nod off.
The sea is reasonably flat at the moment.
Most of the time we are trailing a fishing line. Every now and then
there is a squawk from the reel and everyone leaps up to do fishing stuff.
In my case, heroically taking a picture if there is a catch, but I have wielded
the gaff; the heavy lifting is however done by Ben S and Mark who are
naturals at the Hemingway stuff. The latest beast to be
plucked from the sea was even bigger than before, and was landed onto the
bathing platform at the stern. It has now been deftly filleted by Teresa –
half is in the freezer and the other half is for lunch today.
(Mark doing the fisherman con-trick thing of holding it with outstretched
arms, but it was a biggie anyway)
Talking of bathing, some of us have been yearning to have a swim in 4 mile
deep water; yesterday this would have been possible during a slack wind period,
but the spinnaker was up and swimming from a boat with a giant wind sock is not
a good idea, even with lines trailing.
Utilities news – tragically we are down to our last roll of kitchen towel,
but we are still OK for loo rolls (otherwise I would have to walk the
plank). Also, we are down to the last Fairy liquid bottle – the label says
“11 weeks without buying another one”; rubbish, we have had it open for just a
few days. What are these people washing – expresso cups?
Since just after dawn on Monday we have had a tropicbird circling the boat,
gradually getting closer and closer. We thought it might be knackered and
was looking for a place to kip, but current thinking is that it is looking for
fish disturbed by our passage through the water. Here are some
Attenborough-standard shots by Ben D, and one by Teresa of Glenn having a long
hard look at the sails and birdie doing another lap.
And a special hello to East Sussex – Simone, Mark, Holly, Max,
Eleanor
____________
* as Oli mentioned in his posts, we lost the satphone for the rest of the
voyage; I continued writing blogs and am now posting them all from Catamaran
Marina in Falmouth Harbour after our arrival – indeed, a couple of days after as
the shore wifi was pretty marginal. Sorry about the hiatus, folks, and
thanks for staying with
us. |